Angel
by Lark57
Summary: This is a short ficlet with Hotaru and Heero. It's not really romantic or something, just a short meeting thing and I think it's kinda cool. Please read and review.


Angel

Author's Note : This is a ficlet. Short and not really sweet but not my usual death and sadness either. It's Heero/Hotaru, but not really sappy.

WARNINGS

Gundam Wing Universe, about 10 years after the war

Song lyrics = _purple and italic _

Basic Disclaimers imply to story and song, Angel by Sarah McLachlan

+++

Heero Huy leaned against the bar of local pub, Velocity. It was glitzy and glamour, with faeries and genies walking through the labyrinth of slot machines Giving change, advice and granting wishes to any man who looked down on their luck.

"Ignore me, then," Heero muttered to a passing female genie who gingle-gangled right past him in her black dress covered with silver netting that invited to people to stare at her. No one would ever guess that he needed something or someone. Heero was dressed like a billionaire man in an black Armani suit with a salted margarita to his left and authentic leather briefcase to his right. Who would know that he was ready to through himself off a cliff.

"Knowing my luck I would fly," Heero decided and looked around the club for his client that was suppose to have arrived 10 minuets ago. 

"Do you want to order another drink, sir?" the Irish bartender inquired. When Heero looked at the older man, his green eyes sparkled like emeralds and the stock broker would have been surprised if the man was a leprechaun, ready to steal Heero's gold.

Heero shook his head then added, "No, but do you know if a Trowa Barton has come in tonight?"

"No sir, but I can go ask the manager to alert you as soon as Mr.Barton has arrived." Heero nodded in thanks and the leprechaun danced off to alert the manager. And once again Heero was alone in the dark of the club, watching people dance to the slow electronic music beat like the moths outside under the street lamp light.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," another Irish voice interrupted Heero's imagery.

"It's quite alright Mr.Barton," Heero answered and turned to the tall, green eyed man with cinnamon brown hair, dressed like James Bond. 

"Heero, I'm not your next buyer. You can use my first name," Trowa reassured Heero and the Japanese man actually gave a light chuckle, something he would only do in the presence of another ex-gundam pilot.

"So how are you, Trowa?" Heero asked, nodding to the bartender to come take the new arrival's order. 

"Scotch on the rocks," Trowa said automatically then turned to Heero, "Alright. Duo and I bought our first house a couple of years ago. A nice Victorian in the British Isles, really too large for just the two of us."

Heero had forgotten that Trowa and Duo had left the war with a bond. It surprised him that the relationship had developed. More over that Trowa and Duo had gotten together. Trowa was so quiet and Duo was so full of life. "Where are you now? What do you do?"

Trowa smiled, "Like you don't know."

"Yeah but I want to hear it from you," Heero retorted. Everyone knew that most of the time Heero Huy didn't bother to ask questions, he would just go to the computer and hack through the government files until he found out for himself.

"We're in Nevada at the moment, earning most our money the old fashion way," Trowa said sarcastically, sipping on his amber liquor.

Heero pretended to be shocked, "Trowa Barton, stealing from casinos."

The Heavy Arms pilot looked almost proud of himself, "Yeah, I guess Duo has rubbed off on me a little."

"You two are doing well then?" Heero assumed. 

"Of course. We're having fun too." Trowa was quiet for a second, "It's nice not to be alone, Heero."

Heero nodded, but never answered. He already knew what Trowa was implying and it wasn't like he hadn't tried. "I'm sure it is, Trowa."

Trowa looked disappointed, as if he had failed a mission. He looked at his watch and then sighed, "I'm here on business. Beautiful country. Some really talented crooks too."

"It breeds the best," Heero kidded with Trowa who was mostly Irish. "So you'll be going then?"

Trowa looked around then back at Heero, "I guess I will be. I'm suppose to meet a guy named The Pinch in a pub in the next city soon."

"Planning something big?" Heero inquired as he watched Trowa rise.

The man smiled, "If I told you I would have to kill you ,Heero. I refuse to let you get off so easily."

"It was nice talking to you again," Heero commented.

"Give us a ring if you ever get lonely. You know where to find the number," Trowa mocked him and then walked away.

"Could I call you everyday?" Heero mused to himself and nurtured his drink. There was no reason to stay here anymore, but it wasn't as if he had another place to be.

"Please welcome Hotaru Tomoe," an announcer dressed in a beige suit said then held his arm out to the small girl who walked on to the stage. Heero watched with mild interest. He watched her because she didn't looked like she belonged in the group of white princesses and honored knights that surrounded her and because they examined her like they would wrench her soul out of her body. That was the kind of he was, that was the kind of person he wanted to know.

This girl was small. Her skin, pale ivory in the light that was blazing on her, trying to make her as pure as her spectators, but Heero could tell that she was no innocent. She walked on to the stage, and Heero seemed to be the only one who found strangeness that she, this dark and battered creature, would be wearing the white people's prized, diamond dewed, faerie wings on the back of a simple, cloth back dress.

"Ms. Tomoe has been performing here for the past few weeks and if you have not heard her, then you have surely missed out," the announcer played the audience. Heero watched Hotaru's reaction to the flattery and saw that it did nothing to her. 

"She's almost as detached as I am," Heero mused and watched with more intensity.

+++

Hotaru Tomoe watched the starlight dots that were expecting something great from her. //I could redeem myself in their eyes tonight,// she thought. //I could make up for all the hatred and blood that is one my hands by making at least one person happy during my song.//

The 18 year old girl did not play for the armature reasons like the "love of the music" or "because she wanted to spread a message". Hotaru sang and played the piano for the few moments of connection she felt with the audience, where she was one of their race instead of some sort of monster that had destroyed whole worlds with no guilt. 

"Ms.Tomoe, if you would please," Shawn whispered to her and gestured to the piano bench.

"Yes of course, sir," Hotaru agreed and arranged herself in the seat. The music was in front of her, but she didn't need it, she already knew the song by heart. 

All there was to do was sing.

"_Spend all your time waiting_

for that second chance

for a break that would make it okay."

+++

Heero was struck deeply but the dancing of Hotaru's fingers on the silvery keys and then rocked when she began to accompany the music with a song. She knew him, but how?

"_There's always one reason_

to feel not good enough

and it's hard at the end of the day."

It was an un-nerving sensation to have his emotions put into a song and Heero was shocked into silence. Hotaru knew that he felt empty now. That he was doing little to nothing to change the world, as oppose to fighting for it's freedom as he had done years before.

+++

The music coursed through Hotaru's veins and spilled out onto the piano keys and into the microphone. 

"_I need some distraction_

Oh beautiful release."

It was happening. The magic from the song was over taking the audience and she was able to share some of her pain with them, relieve herself just a bit.

"_Memory seeps from my veins_."

Families screaming for mercy flashed through her mind and instead of making her fumble, Hotaru played with even more passion than before. She wanted to make the queen faeires, the Mabs, the wizards, and small knights weep for her suffering. She wanted the pity that she would refuse to except in any other place.

"_Let me be empty_

and weightless and maybe

I'll find some peace tonight."

She left her body. Hotaru was watching herself pour everything into the one song, heart and soul. Her other self watched how people reacted, feeling up on the admiration and purity that radiated from the bodies.

+++

"_In the arms of an angel_

fly away from here.

From this dark cold hotel room

and the endlessness that you fear."

Heero watched Hotaru as the lights glided around her and reflected like glittering powder on her pale. "My angel," he murmured, completely shocked and maybe even afraid of the emotions that were invading his body after so long.

"_You are pulled from the wreckage_

of your silent reverie.

You're in the arms of the angel

may you find some comfort there."

Comfort. That was what Heero needed from this small siren enchantress. He thought he would find it with money, with success, or seeing old friends again. But no, Hotaru understood him better than Trowa, Duo, Quatre or Wufei ever could. She would be able to sympathize with his pain. With the haunting feeling that he meant nothing to the world anymore.

+++

"_So tired of the straight line_

and everywhere you turn

there's vultures and thieves at your back."  


Hotaru began to feel scared once again. This had always happened when the watchers had discovered how much this sort of feeling was worth. No one in the crowd was enjoying the ecstasy anymore. Now they were planning how to trap her in their web and use her for their own fortune. Except for one.

+++

"_And the storm keeps on twisting._

You keep on building the lie

that you make up for all that you lack."

Heero watched the change of feeling on Hotaru's face. He watched liquid crystal fall down her face as her voice stayed clear and fiery. He wanted to _comfort_ her now. Save her from the daemons that she was singing of. If he did that then his life wouldn't be a story tale. His worth would be true once more and he would have a reason to go on.

+++ 

"_It don't make no difference,_

escaping one last time.

It's easier to believe in this sweet madness oh

this glorious sadness that brings me to my knees."

Hotaru lost the feeling. The connection once more with almost everyone that was watching her. They were calling to her now, to drag her down into their scaring white light. They would burn her skin, burn away what little painful feeling she had left. 

She would have to leave this place now. Find another remote area where they had never heard of her and she could get her fix one more time.

"_In the arms of an angel_

fly away from here.

From this dark cold hotel room

and the endlessness that you fear."

Hotaru opened her eyes, the feeling of the song leaving her body as she winded down. Her stare was met by that of the one person who wasn't looking to hunt and trap her. He was dressed in black like her. He wasn't one of the white, disfigured monsters that would rip her apart. He was her angel.

+++

"_You are pulled from the wreckage_

of your silent reverie.

You're in the arms of the angel

may you find some comfort there."

Heero understood when the sad girl opened her eyes that the song was not to comfort others, but herself. She was lost in her own feelings and memories just like he was. They shared the pain of war that no one else in this hellish room had felt.

+++

Hotaru recited the last few lines of the song and played the last few notes on the piano. The man was still watching her.

"Shawn, I have to go," she answered quickly as the man guided her off the stage. 

"Hotaru, there are some important companies here who would love to sign a record deal with you," he tried to explain but the dark angel, her small soul light shinning through her body was already running off to find her own angel.

He was still there, waiting for her. "You're Heero Huy, I should have known."

"Do you think anyone else would understand that song?" he inquired, staring at her, trying to figure out whether she was real or another genie who was planning to trick him down into the pits of death.

"No," she answered, watching him with the same scrutiny. //Why now? Why here?// she questioned.

"They say that there are genies here that grant your wishes for a pound," Heero mindlessly recited.

"I'm not a genie, I'm a lost girl," Hotaru mumbled.

"A lost angel," Heero corrected, looking over her shoulder to her wings that seemed to have a power of their own.

Hotaru smiled as she felt Heero's callused finger against her face. "I'm a firefly. Hotaru," she retorted.

"Oh," Heero said and began walking towards the exit. "Are you coming?"

"I'm not use to not being alone," Hotaru said, fear creeping inside her like a tiger.

"Neither am I," Heero admitted and held out his hand, "But my friend says it's a nice feeling, not being alone."

Hotaru didn't give an answer as she walked with Heero outside the club. There was no agreement of where they would go, or what they were together. All that mattered was that they weren't alone anymore.

+++

__

You're in the arms of the angel.

May you find some comfort here

+++


End file.
